Giveaway!!! Newborn Posing Guide by Jacqueline ends 8/1 - Inspire Me Baby

Giveaway!!! Newborn Posing Guide by Jacqueline ends 8/1 - Inspire Me Baby

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Our little girl ...

Her first graduation! Pre-K and she's as serious as can be! We are so proud of our little girl. She was chosen to hold the bible during the salutes to the American flag, the Christian flag and the bible. She took her job so seriously and did a fantastic job! Of course, she was born for the stage. I say that because after every song she was the only kid taking a bow! :o)

She loves her brother so much and he was so happy to see his "Sissy" up on stage.

It wouldn't be a school function for Kalyssa without a picture of her and her best friend! These girls are positively adorable together. We are so sad that she won't be attending the same school next year but I'm sure there will be lots of play dates in our future!

It's Official! I'm a real live ARTIST!

I've never considered myself an artist. Never. My best friend says she always has because when we met in high school I would draw stuff in a sketch pad while we were at work. I guess I was fairly decent but I never considered myself good by any stretch of the imagination.

In the early part of the century (2002/2003 maybe) I started paper scrapbooking. Again, I was passable but I wouldn't say good. In 2007 I discovered digital scrapbooking. This changed my life! The paper style was so messy and actually dangerous to have around my young toddler. Still, I was passable. It's been 3 years now and I've taken many classes (at http://www.scrapgirls.com/) on design, techniques and photography. For the last 2 years I've been on the site's Welcoming Committee for their forum. I've loved my place on the team since day one and I still do. Recently they had a call for openings on the Layout Artist team. Not once did I think that I would be chosen but I figured it couldn't hurt to try, right? I had heard that they will give constructive critism and tell you how to improve your skills for the next time you apply so I thought that would be a really good thing for me. Something to work on.

About a month ago I was shocked, to say the least, that they chose me and 3 other very talented ladies out of 45+ applicants to be a Layout Artist. Since then I have been given some assignments and a few of the product designers have asked me to create layouts featuring their new products. This is a HUGE honor in my opinion!

So, I have had this title officially for a little less than a month. But today it's really official because I've had my first layout published in the Scrap Girls Newsletter! And even better ... it's in the TOP SPOT! It's the first thing you see when you open up the newsletter! It doesn't get much more exciting than that for me folks! I am totally loving my new title as Artist! Even though I never in my wildest dreams would have put that label on me!

Wanna see the newsletter? You won't have to go digging around for my layout. It' right there on top! :D

Scrap Girls Chit Chat Newsletter: May 21, 2010

♥ - Me, the Artist! (Ha Ha! I still can't believe it!)

P.S. Thanks Ang for letting me be the first to play with your new Winsome Collection!

Happy Easter!!!

I hope you had a wonderful day full of God's blessings! We sure did! Wanna see? I thought you might! So, without further ado ...

Here's the 2-page layout:

Here's the left side:

And here's the right:
Aren't those children just precious??? They love the eggs filled with confetti! It was a wonderful day full of many blessings, including gorgeous weather!

Take care! Hugs all around!!!

♥~ KC, Shari, Kalyssa & Kaden

A chance to win a Nikon D90!!

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Big Machinery!

This is a double page scrapbooking layout I made. I'll let the journaling do the talking.

Here's the left side...

And here's the right side ...
Oh yes ... I'm being reffered to a hand surgeon. I've had one MRI and we discovered ligament damage. Then X-Rays showed that some of my bones in my wrist aren't lining up right. I go in next week for another MRI with contrast dye injected. I have to make an appointment with the surgeon in the northern part of the state soon. First I have to figure out if my insurance covers him. That's really all we know so far. Hopefully we'll get more answers within the next few weeks.

All for now! Love and hugs from the Payne's!

Snow Much Fun!!!

Here in our little neck of the woods we usually don't get much snow. When we do it either doesn't stick or melts pretty darn quick. Every once in awhile though we get a pretty nice snow storm that allows us to play a little. This last week we had lots of snow. The first day we got about 6 inches and it stayed all day. The problem was that it rained on the snow all day too so no playing. Thankfully we kept getting snow and it stuck around long enough on a nice day to play! Yay! Usually these kinds of fun snow days end up being on a weekday too so KC doesn't get to play with us. (And the number of pictures I get are limited.) This time our play day was on Saturday and oh boy did we play! Woowee!!! Wanna see? I could literally show you about 250 pictures (because I literally took that many) but I just picked a few of my most favorite ones to share.

On with the snow, er, I mean, SHOW! :o)

We had snowball fights - built a snow fort and everything!

KC got a little carried away ...

Who knew how much fun a snowy trampoline could be? The kids loved it when Daddy would "pop" the snow up from the bottom!

We used anything and everything we could find to use as a sled. I'll say, Daddy got a TON of exercise pulling everyone around on "sleds" - including me! (Sorry, no pictures of him pulling me ... I was too busy being pulled!) :o) When we weren't being pulled we were sliding down the handicap ramp at my mom's house. I'll tell you ... having a big backyard is a really great thing in times like these!

Mr. Engineer had to see if a shovel would make a better slide than the "Ice Comet." It didn't. ;-)

And, of course, there were snowmen! (Who knew you could use cake decorating supplies to decorate snow? LOL!)

This is KC's idea of a snowman ...

After all that play we were all tuckered out!

And there you have it! A totally awesome fun family day in the snow! I'm so glad Daddy could play with us this time. Is was way more fun having him play with us! I hope we get one or two more this winter! (It was good exercise too!)

So what's your favorite picture? Leave a comment (I think I have that feature fixed - and you shouldn't have to register or anything ... I hope) and let us know what you think!

Blessings!
KC, Shari, Kalyssa and Kaden